Image: NYU Stern
As the Gulf pushes ahead with diversification and global ambitions, the demand for executives who can balance profit, purpose, and innovation is only growing. NYU Stern has answered with the launch of its executive MBA programme in Abu Dhabi, tailored to the region’s unique business landscape.
Barbara Scheck, vice dean of programmes at Stern at NYUAD and clinical associate professor of management, explains how the programme is preparing leaders to navigate AI, sustainability, and social impact while also supporting women in leadership across the Middle East.
NYU Stern is launching its Executive MBA programme in Abu Dhabi at a time when the region is rapidly diversifying its economy. What do you see as the programme’s biggest contribution to the leadership landscape in the UAE and wider MENA region?
Our programme is based here in Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, and we have designed it specifically to prepare professionals in the region, or those with interests here, to lead. Our faculty, all 20 of them, are based in Abu Dhabi and are researching topics that relate to the MENA region or the businesses and industries here.
This is not a fly-in, fly-out programme. Our faculty and staff work in partnership with corporates, industry experts, financial leaders, and government officials to better understand where business is going in the UAE, the GCC, and the wider MENA region.
Our programme is tailored to that feedback. It has been designed to educate leaders and executives to prepare them for these challenges and opportunities, to think about how the future of business will evolve in the region, and to confidently make decisions that grow their businesses and careers from the first day they start classes.
Entrepreneurship and impact investing are increasingly shaping how executives think about growth. How is the EMBA curriculum designed to help leaders navigate this shift and build organisations that balance innovation, social impact, and financial success?
Business schools are under pressure to prepare leaders who can deliver both profit and purpose. From your perspective, how do you strike that balance in executive education without diluting either priority?
Although we launched the Stern School of Business at NYU Abu Dhabi in February, NYU Stern has been around for over 120 years. Our DNA is the same, and a central value of that DNA is teaching our students responsibility. The belief that business should improve society is built directly into our culture and curriculum.
We have the academic rigour to execute on that, and our programmes are inspired by the tried-and-tested NYU and Washington DC EMBA. Ultimately, financial gains, innovation, and social impact are not mutually exclusive goals. They can be achieved in unison, enabling decisions that are both financially successful and socially impactful, providing opportunities beyond one’s industry.
It is our responsibility as a business school to educate current leaders and future change-makers to be more equipped to drive business. Equally important is teaching students how to deliver profit while maintaining purpose through recognising their influence and making decisions with perspective.
That purpose is embedded in our curriculum through courses such as “Professional Responsibility” and “Leadership in Organisations”, as well as specialisations such as “Sustainability”.
There is growing demand across the region for women in leadership roles. How do you see the EMBA supporting senior female professionals in breaking through barriers and shaping the next generation of leadership?
Women are an essential part of business and government. Today, more women serve as CEOs, executives, and leaders in their industries. The UAE is already a regional leader in gender equality and women’s empowerment, with impressive numbers and ongoing policy initiatives. However, more still needs to be done.
We’re proud to have addressed this from the very earliest foundation of this programme. In fact, the first three employees of Stern at NYUAD, and the minds who took this from a nascent idea to a fully-fledged school, were all women. Our faculty includes a higher rate of women than the average business school, and the students in our Stern at NYUAD one-year full-time MBA inaugural cohort reflect recent trends of having a higher percentage of women than before.
As a woman in business, I’ve found that being a minority in the workplace presents unique challenges. Navigating stereotypes, the work–family interface, and a lack of built-in networks can often lead to feeling isolated. What made a real difference to me was reframing my perspective: instead of feeling “different”, I chose to see myself as “one of the first”.
I also proactively sought out female role models and advisers, whose guidance was incredibly helpful in my career. It is encouraging to see a growing number of women in leadership roles today, both in the private sector and in government.
My hope is that they will pay it forward, mentoring the next generation on their own journeys to purpose and leadership.
Looking ahead, what broader trends in business education do you think will define the next decade, particularly for executives operating in emerging markets like the Middle East?
The major one, and the hot topic of the moment, is AI. AI is here to stay, and it is transforming the way we do business, teach, learn, conduct ourselves, and even plan our holidays. It’s an incredible tool that brings with it both tremendous opportunities and significant challenges.
Our job, as business leaders and educators, is not just to teach the fundamentals and ensure our students are well-versed in these tools. We need to teach what we call “higher-order thinking”—meaning what to do with these tools once they’ve mastered them. AI is only as good as the person harnessing it.
Our students won’t just know how to use the latest AI tools to grow their impact and businesses, but they’ll also be encouraged to ask: to what end should I be using these tools? We train them in agility, resilience, critical thinking, and empathy so they can consider how AI in the Middle East can give them an edge, and how it will change their businesses, their roles, and ultimately the industries in the region.
Read: Accenture’s Abir Habbal on preparing AI-savvy leaders
